November 1-6, 1997
Washington, DCSession Abstracts

The panel will present and discuss two different retrieval methods involved in accessing digital collections to provide focus for a discussion of the divergent and complex skills that students of information retrieval must experience.
A research report, Semantic Patterns of Keywords in Citation Clusters,
will be presented to illustrate one retrieval method with growing implications for educating retrieval agents. Semantic and citation searching
will impact how we perform research and how we train our students.
A presentation of results of research using semantic patterns in
citation clusters provides a foundation for later discussion of
the competencies students will require to be able to apply such techniques.
The second presentation will review current work in the vocabularies
and report on how appropriate thesaurus terms are identified
and what criteria must be met for inclusion. A platform development
project of the Getty Information Institute will be highlighted
to provide examples of the mechanisms required to receive
and process terms to produce usable retrieval keys. The final
paper will draw upon the first two presentations to initiate
a discussion of the implications for teaching emerging
information scientists how to implement retrieval instruments and strategies.

The Clash of Stakeholders on the Information Superhighway: Will Public Interest and Fair Use Survive?
SIG HFIS, PUB, IFP

Despite agreement on CONFU guidelines for the fair
use of digital materials in specific instances, the publishing and
educational communities remain substantially apart on the question
of fair use of digital collections generally. Additionally, the WIPO
agreement on databases and NII Copyright Protection Act
will undoubtedly impact the future of fair use. This panel
session will focus on the practicalities of differences
between the publishing and educational communities on fair use of digital
collections, how these differences impact developers and maintainers
of digital collections, and what the impact on the public
interest of reasonableaccess to information will be.

For years, the complexities of managing images and image collections has
exceeded the capabilities of textual classification and indexing tools.
Recent technological advancements, however, have resulted in a
number of fruitful research projects. Furthermore, the new
technology has created the possibility of managing images
and image information in ways appropriate for image collections,
rather than adapting methodologies designed for text documents.
Widespread availability of digital images has generated tremendous
interest in search and retrieval of images. More than a few
commercial enterprises are playing an active and prominent
role in amassing digital collections of images. These
organizations will have considerable impact on the tools and methodologies
developed for managing image collections. A very real
possibility exists that private businesses will
create de-facto standards, or entrenched and inertia-bound
systems with insufficient attention to sound
theoretical foundations for them. This session will bring
together researchers and practitioners for the purpose of
reporting research findings, and information about current or
proposed image storage and retrieval systems. Particular attention
will be given to classification and indexing of images.

Explorations in Using Audio Description as a Tool for
Indexing Moving Image Documents.
James M. Turner, École de bibliothèconomie
et des sciences de l'information, Université de Montréal,
Moderator (
turner@ere.umontreal.ca).How People Describe Images: Continuing Research.
Corinne Jorgensen, State University of New York at Buffalo
(cjorgens@sbvms.cc.buffalo.edu).Sharing Congruence: Text-Based and Image-Based Representations for Moving
Images. Abbey Goodrum, University of North Texas (goodrum@lis.unt.edu).

Classificatory Structures and the Construction of Reality
SIG CR, TIS

This session explores how classificatory structures support
interaction between individuals, discourse communities, and
scholarly disciplines in the Global Information Association.
Classification schemes provide access to existing knowledge and promote
development of new knowledge. Although a domain-specific classification
defines main concepts within a particular area, it does not exist
in isolation, but shares with associated discourse communities
a dialogical interconnection expressed through shared
concepts. Development of these shared concepts impacts
integration within traditional disciplines and underlies
effective communication between social groups and knowledge domains.
Such influence extends to the development and maintenance
of universal schemes for large, centralized or distributed
collections of information objects.

Hanne Albrechtsen, The Royal School of Librarianship, Copenhagen,
Moderator (hal@db.dk).

Digital Collections for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
SIG TIS

Access to business information is as necessary for small and
medium-sized enterprises as it is for large corporations. The panelists
will discuss information resources, networking opportunities,
partnerships, training, and business-support services that foster
productivity and quality of life for entrepreneurs. They will highlight
trends and issues in the development of information sources and business
opportunities in international trade for small and medium-sized
enterprises.

Electronic Publication in the Sciences: An Examination of Production, Distribution, and Use
SIG STI

It is widely accepted that scientific publishing is inexorably
changing from the traditional paper-based format to digital media.
Numerous electronic publishing ventures in the sciences are
already underway, resulting in the development of a number of
models. Most commonly, scientific journals and other literature
are being published simultaneously in both print and electronic
formats. However, some journals and other materials
(e.g., technical reports, newsletters and databanks) are being
produced, distributed and used completely in electronic format.
While the electronic medium offers some clear and sometimes
exciting advantages, there are also attendant
challenges to electronic production, dissemination and use
of scientific information. This session will bring together
participants representing the areas of production, distribution
and use of electronic scientific publications. Ellis Rubinstein, editor
of the journal Science, a publication of the American
Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), will discuss
and provide insight into the electronic publication of
that prestigious journal. Dr. Donald Johnson of the U.S.
National Technical Information Service (NTIS) will speak
on the current practices and future vision for distribution
of electronic publications through NTIS. NTIS is a major
distributor of scientific and technical research and has
been developing a number of novel projects to expedite
the distribution of information electronically. Ann Weller
will address user expectations and needs in the electronic environment.

Dr. Julie Hurd, author of the 1996 ASIS publication
From Print to Electronic: The Transformation of
Scientific Communications, will react to the
individual presentations and provide comments on
future issues in scientific electronic publishing.

As digital collections increase in importance and become the focus of scholarly and popular pursuits, the impetus to create and make accessible new digital resources grows ever stronger.
At the same time, funders are demanding that projects produce
results that benefit not just a select few but a wide range
of institutions and individuals. Many information professionals
are familiar with those public agency and private foundation
initiatives that are specific to a particular area or topic;
there are few opportunities for us to hear directly from
funders who sponsor more overarching programs. The 1997
Funding Forum is meant to serve as a platform for
representatives of a variety of programs to discuss
their expectations for projects to be funded in the
next cycle, currently funded initiatives, the relative
success of past projects, and their hopes for future
collaborative efforts. The forum is also meant to provide
personal contact with both the program representatives
and with the other participants, many of whom
represent institutions with whom fruitful collaborations
may be built. A panel of ASIS members who represent
various research areas will ask questions of the funders.
Ample time for questions and access to the speakers will be provided.

Globalization: Shaping Organizational Strategies, Building Partnerships, and Enhancing Information Exchange in the Information Age
SIG III

Globalization is characterized by a multitude of linkages and interconnections that transcend the geo-political boundaries that define the modern world system, and implies that events, decisions and
activities in one locality can have significant consequences for
individuals and communities in distant parts of the world.
Technology has been an instrumental force in globalization,
affecting the way people and organizations work and
communicate worldwide. At the same time, globalization
has been shaped by organizational strategies,
technological limitations and national policies.
This understanding constitutes the framework for the session.

Organizational Challenges to Global Demands for Information Sharing.
Sue O'Neill Johnson, World Bank.Cooperative International Partnerships for Sci-Tech Libraries.
Martin Kesselman, Rutgers University Library of Science and Medicine.The Impact of Information and Communications Technology on International Conflict Management. Margarita S. Studemeister, U.S. Institute of PeaceThe Global Information Infrastructure: A Perspective From the National Library of Medicine. Elliot Siegel, National Library of Medicine.

Pauline Cochrane, Graduate School of Library and Information
Science, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Moderator
(pcochran@uiuc.edu).

Information Technology Projects at the National Library of Medicine
SIG MED, STI

The National Library of Medicine has been a pioneer in the use
of computer systems to encode and distribute knowledge in the
life sciences. Three of these projects will be discussed:
the Visible Human Project, the Unified Medical Language System,
and the Natural Language Systems.

High speed software development has become a competitive imperative.
The times when a development team could count on 18 months between
releases has ended. At the same time, customer demand has
increased for software that is easy to learn and use.
To cope with these often conflicting demands of high
speed development and a high degree of usability,
the model of iterative prototyping was developed.
Using this model the software is usability tested and
information from that testing is immediately incorporated
into the software and the usability testing is repeated.
This session will offer any ASIS attendees the opportunity
to participate in a usability test and
see the results of their tests incorporated into a piece
of software. Using a portable usability equipment setup,
attendees will be tested on sample software during the
first three days of the conference (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday).
The results of the test along with the modified
software would be presented in a session on Wednesday.
Right now, the plans are to use an HTML-based
software for the usability test due to its
flexibility as a multi-platform tool.

Interface Design for Digital Special Collections
SIG HCI

Special collections have always presented the IS
professional with a unique set of challenges and
opportunities. As we move to digitize existing
collections and create new digital information stores,
the issue of providing access to the digital representation
becomes a central concern. This panel will examine
both the opportunities and challenges of
designing interfaces for diverse user populations
accessing digital special collections.

International Assistance for Networking in Less-Developed Countries
SIG III

This session will cast light on the various bodies which are currently
involved in building information networks in less
technologically developed countries. The session hopes
to raise awareness not only about the multiplicity
of funding agencies but of the different policies
and philosophies being pursued by the funding agencies
supporting information infrastructure development.

Pamela Spence Richards, School of Communication,
Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University.Regina Varniene, National Library of Lithuania.Wendy White, US National Research Council.Didier Ouillo, French Ministry of Education.

Linking Government Data Producers to the Intermediary User Communities
Bureau of Labor Statistics

The availability of the Internet to distribute
information has provided opportunities and challenges to data producers,
data users, and the intermediary community.
For government data producers, the Internet has
provided a new medium to distribute information
more quickly and completely than was possible
using traditional methods. But, this information
is just a speck among the entire range of
materials available to users. Processes to
facilitate access to this information and assure its reliability and
authenticity are essential and require an understanding
of the linkage between content and technology. The
federal statistical community recognized that individual
agencies had developed excellent web sites that
showcased their own statistics arranged
in a way that suited that material. This meant that users
had to know which agency produced which statistics, and
faced a variety of organizational schemes as they
attempted to find what they were looking for. To
minimize this problem, a task-force was established and
charged with developing an interface that would
provide a single site through which all federal
statistics could be located, while control of the
statistics themselves remained with the data producers.
This site is called FEDSTATS (http://www.fedstats.gov/).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) faced a
related challenge. It wished to encourage the
international statistical agencies to maintain
certain standards for official statistics
and it also wanted to facilitate use and
comparisons of these data. The IMF's Dissemination
Standards Bulletin Board (http://dsbb.imf.org/) provides
key information about economic and financial data
disseminated by member countries that subscribe to
the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS).
Now that both sites have been established, customer
feedback is being monitored and enhancements are
being considered to better serve the user communities.
This session will focus on the development, content, and
plans for these two web sites to illustrate some
of the issues faced in linking producers and users.

One standard that supports the Web is the Uniform Resource Locator
(URL), a standard way of addressing networked resources. URLs
have serious limitations, including expired links,
confusion between names and addresses, and difficulty
in distinguishing between various versions of
a resource. Unlike the world of online catalogs, the
web does not offer an infrastructure for bibliographic
control. To deal with these inadequacies, the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) established the Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI) Working Group to discuss
and develop standards for naming, describing and
addressing Internet resources. One intent of
the Working Group is to create an all encompassing concept
and associated syntax that will include and coordinate
all forms of URs that might be needed. Two forms of
URIs have been proposed, the Uniform Resource Names (URNs)
and the Uniform Resource Characteristics (URCs). The URN
is intended to deal with the issue of unique
identifiers for networked resources. The URC is
intended to contain metadata about a URN. In other
words, the URC will supply a "bibliographic"
description to an Internet resource to facilitate discovery of
networked digital resources and collections. The
session will mainly focus on the URC. Various proposals
for their implementation and other metadata standards,
such as the Dublin Core, will be outlined and presented.

Research done by non-English speaking researchers and published in English journals can usually join the global information exchange cycle.
But much of the research published in languages other than English
has long been obscured by a much smaller distribution.
Multilingual databases are created to broaden the
dissemination of information in languages other than
English. As information technology, especially networking
technology, has developed, accessibility to multilingual
databases has been greatly improved. This panel brings
together a group of international speakers to exchange
ideas and discuss issues related to producing and
implementing multilingual databases. The panel
focuses on the implications of multilingual databases,
that is, the availability and accessibility of
multilingual databases, economics of multilingual
database production and use, and theoretical issues.
Through the panel discussion, better ways to
distribute information generated in non-English
speaking countries to the other parts of the world may emerge.

Linda Smith, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Moderator (smith@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu).

Networked Distribution of Electronic Publications: Planning and Research
SIG TIS, National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services

Publishers, database developers, and distributors of digital collections are engaged in cooperative research projects with digital and traditional libraries to plan and test systems for networked distribution
of electronic publications. A variety of delivery alternatives,
search and retrieval systems, and print-on-demand modes are
being compared in order to arrive at economically and
functionally acceptable models. Institutions with
varying types and levels of technical infrastructure
are participating in the projects. User behavior
study might result in improvements in article structure
or retrieval tools. The overall goal of most studies
seems to be to reduce the unit cost of information
delivery and retrieval. The panelists will discuss
specific projects, results achieved to date, and
implications for the future.

Classification structures may prove invaluable in the construction of
graphical interfaces for information retrieval systems to make retrieval
simpler and faster to use and easier to understand. Classification
structures have the potential to contribute to both the retrieval
and display aspects of system design. This session will explore
ways classification structures in graphical interfaces may
enhance information retrieval system design. It will
include presentations from research in constructing a visual
terminology database and will consider possibilities for
graphic presentation of known-item information in online catalogs.

The Application of Classification Structures in a Visual
Terminology Database of Medicinal Herbs. Marcia Lei Zeng,
School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University
(mzeng@kentvm.kent.edu).Graphic Representation of Author and Work Information Using Classification. Allyson Carlyle (acarlyle@u.washington.edu) and Sam Oh (
ohs@u.washington.edu), Graduate School of Library and Information
Science, University of Washington.

Graphical Displays of Term Relationships. Xia Lin, College
of Information Science & Technology, Drexel University
(xlin@acm.org).

Two different ways of displaying term relationships are
studied. One is to display terms in a hierarchy. The hierarchy can group
terms by their semantic relationships. Its structure can be expanded
or contracted to allow the user to focus on different details.
The display terms can be linked to pre-constructed queries to all
ow search engines to retrieve accurately information related to
the display terms. This hierarchical display is compared to a map
display of terms. On the map display, term relationships are shown
by their relative geographical locations, which are determined by the
computer through analysis of text or term relationships.
This presentation will focus on how these two displays can
be generated manually or automatically, the
advantages and disadvantages of each, and the potential applications
of these displays in the web environment. Research prototypes for
both displays will be presented and discussed.

Development of a Lattice-Based Graphical Interface for Conceptual Navigation in Classification Systems. Uta Priss (upriss@indiana.edu) and Elin K. Jacob (ejac
ob@indiana.edu),
School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University.

Raya Fidel, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Washington, Moderator (fidelr@u.washington.edu).

Pamoja: A Training Simulation for International Information Flow
SIG III

Gail Wadsworth and Wendy White, the creators of Pamoja, will facilitate this exciting simulation at the 1997 Annual Meeting of ASIS. Pamoja
is a training simulation intended to raise awareness about the equity
in international information flows and importance of developing a
multitude of information resources. In Pamoja, players divide
into teams representing countries, select roles that they will
play, and create cultures. They then negotiate to get as
much information from and about the other teams as possible.
While there is some competition, cooperation is encouraged.
Pamoja is the Swahili word for "together"; it expresses
both the philosophy and the unique nature of the game. By playing
Pamoja, participants can gain an understanding of:
the global imbalances in information resources; the relative
cost of these resources; some of the barriers to the flow of
information to, from, and within resource-poor and resource-rich
countries; the interdependence of information seekers and
information providers at all levels of information
infrastructure development; and ways in which different cultures
interact to share information, ideas, and knowledge.
Participation in this special double session is limited and
you must pre-register.

Wendy White, Director, Committee on International Organizations and Programs, National Research Council. Moderator (wwhite@nas.edu).Gail Wadsworth.

Wendy White, Director, Committee on International Organizations and Programs, National Research Council. Moderator (wwhite@nas.edu).

When the Web emerged, many librarians saw it as the perfect technology for information resources, the mythical "seamless interface" in which
users could search multiple database simultaneously, choosing their
level of search complexity. Now that we have experience employing
Web technology, what is the reality of its integration into
the library world? The panel will present recent user behavior
studies and their implications for adaptive interfaces,
security configurations, and flexible approaches
to public access computer/information resources. Audience
attendees will be encouraged to share their experiences, raise
their concerns, and express their visions about the use of
the Web in libraries.

User Behavior in the Electronic Library: The Case for Adaptive and Flexible Interfaces. Oya Y. Rieger, Cornell University Library.Library Online Catalog Use in the Web Environment: The Experience of a Public Library. Dan Iddings, Networked and Automated Services, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.Where Our Patrons Go in Cyberspace: Click-Stream Analysis in an Academic Research Library. Laura Cousineau and John Little, Perkins Library, Duke University.

Cassandra Armstrong, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Moderator.

Semiotic Approaches to Information Science
SIG STI, VIS

Signs and symbols of all sorts play various roles in information
science but the relationship between semiotics and information science
is not clear to most people in information science. This panel will
unite thinkers working at the forefront of the problem of how
semiotics can help redefine the paradigm of information science to
provide better tools for information seeking and information use.

Contributed Papers:

PORT: A Testbed Paradigm for Online Digital Archive Development. Mary Keeler and Leroy Searle, University of Washington, and Christian Kloesel, Indiana University-Purdue University.The Concept of Subject in a Semiotic Light. Jens-Eric Mai, Royal School of Librarianship, Copenhagen.

The State-of-the-Art of Search Engines as Intelligent Agents
SIG IAE

The evolution of search software is now entering a third iteration in which search software is characterized by: 1) natural-language queries; 2) additional functions based on advanced natural-language
processing, for example, relevance evaluation and customized
presentation of results; and 3) a dissolving of the direct
relationship between search software and specified databases --
the software may identify relevant databases in cyberspace, and
then perform its functions on them. This session will involve
presentations by vendors of commercial products, followed
by the views of NSF on directions in which search software
may develop, with special consideration to the extent to
which third-generation features may augment or replace human interaction.

Successful information managers integrated corporate information
services (IS) fully into all corporate activities. They adapted the
IS to serve global companies rather than separate units, or
national industrial sectors rather than medium-size enterprises.
Information managers were also instrumental in changing the corporate
view toward information and creating information-centric companies;
some have been transforming their own services into virtual
organizations, and have developed innovative ways to make
full use of computing and communication capabilities. How could
some IS departments expand their services in the midst of
corporate cutbacks? How did IS reorient itself? What will be
the information professional's role in the future? The panel
members will recount accomplishments and review the process
of the transformation of their ISs, a process that includes
corporate management, technology, dismantling traditional barriers,
and reshaping the outlook of the IS staff.

Studies of Faculty Transition To the Use of Electronic Information Resources
SIG MED, STI

Each of the speakers will discuss results of research projects they have undertaken which examined faculties' adaptation to a variety of new
electronic technologies. University and college libraries have acquired
numerous information technologies and invested in networks to
support the information needs of faculty and to facilitate
the research process. While costly endeavors, they offer enhanced
access to information for both faculty and students. The speakers
will examine access to and use of electronic resources with regard to
institution size and discipline. Changes in information seeking
skills, uses of electronic information, the types of information
desired, the skill at accessing electronic information, and the
availability of this information will be discussed.

Eileen G. Abels, College of Library and Information Science, University of Maryland.Joan Fiscella, University of Illinois at Chicago.Julie Hurd, University of Illinois at Chicago.Ann C. Weller, Library of the Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Then and Now: Information Science Problems and Systems
SIG ED, HFIS

This session continues the annual sessions sponsored by SIG/HFIS and
SIG/ED for the past six years on the history of information science.
The theme this year, looking at some classical problems of information
science, will be of interest to a general audience as well as those
with an interest in the history of the field.

What Were Those Big Old Extract Files, and Why Should Anyone Care Today?Ben-Ami Lipetz, School of Information Science and Policy State,
State University of New York at Albany
(balipetz@cnsvax.albany.edu).
Online Information Retrieval: How Far Have We Come?Trudi Bellardo Hahn, User Education Services, University of Maryland Libraries and Charles P. Bourne (
th90@umail).The Leadermart System: Then and Now. Donald Hillman,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Lehigh University.

Robert V. Williams, College of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, Moderator (bobwill@sc.edu).

Theories in Information Science
SIG ED, HFIS

There are intermittent complaints that Information Science lacks theory. In this fourth annual session on Theory in Information Science,
three theoretical papers will be presented on: the nature of digital
documents; a reconsideration of the notion of
"vocabulary" in retrieval systems; and a critique of the
novelty of online communications.

Documents in Digital Collections. David M. Levy,
Systems and Practices Laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
(dlevy@parc.xerox.com).Vocabulary as a Central Concept in Information Science.
Michael Buckland, School of Information Management and Systems,
University of California, Berkeley
(buckland@sims.berkeley.edu).
Just More or Different: Is a Revolutionary Communications Culture
Emerging in an Online Age?W. Boyd Rayward, School of
Information, Library, and Archive Studies, University of New South Wales
(w.rayward@unsw.edu.au).

Time as a Factor in the Evaluation of Information Quality
SIG HFIS, IAE

The rate at which organized information can be produced has continued to rise rapidly, as predicted years ago, and is a primary basis on which new technology is sold and justified. The rate of producing
information can be increased by physical and electronic means while
the time required for product evaluation improves less rapidly,
depending on skills and experience. There is a danger point in
snap judgments, after these two curves cross. Product quality is
degraded when decisions are delegated increasingly to people with
inadequate skills, and pressure intensifies for fraud or
virtual substitutes. The effects of better technology on quantity
and quality of information are quite different. This is the 20th
year since SIG/IAE was founded, by changing the name and statement
of purpose of what was originally SIG/IAC. The theme of this
discussion will be introduced as "The More Things Change . .",
comparing criteria for evaluation at the time of the IAC to IAE shift
(late 70s) with the post-war aims of Vannevar Bush (late 40s), and
portents of Weblock (late 90s). Evaluation principles considered
as basic in 1977 included: 1) value for each user is a variable,
depending on intended use; 2) the value of an information service
depends on peer acceptance, and recognized skills of the analyst;
and 3) value includes quality, which depends on human choices
and is not easily mechanized. Allowing sufficient time and
energy for evaluation has been a continuing theme in each of
these developments. Three authors will discuss interactions
between human skill and new technologies, in case histories
about hidden costs of speed and accessibility (David Penniman),
variables of confidence and quality of Federal documents in an electronic
age (Robin Peek), and problems in peer review for JASIS
as a scholarly journal (Donald Kraft). In each of these cases, decisions
on quality involve conflicts between tangible and intangible values.

Loss of Quality in Emerging Information Systems. W. David
Penniman, School of Information Sciences, University of Tennessee -
Knoxville (penniman@utk.edu).

The trade-off between quality and speed as well as accessibility has never been more evident than with the emergence of the World-Wide
Web in particular and the Internet in general. When mapped against the
ideal systems envisioned in historical descriptions (e.g. MEMEX of the
1940s or the information analysis centers of the 1950s and 1960s)
we see real progress in speed of delivery as well as end-user
accessibility. What is not obvious is the cost of the emerging
systems when compared to other more traditional systems. Cost
may be computed as the budgeted cost or the total systems cost.
When budgeted cost is considered, the new systems appear to cost less.
If, however, the total systems cost were evaluated, it would have to include
the cost of time the end-users spent in wading through mounds of noisy
material as well as the retrieval and possible use of poor quality
material to make important decisions. The solution may not be a return
to previous methods of information delivery, but enhancement of the
emerging systems to include some of the screening and selection
processes users have relied on in the past. Alternatives for integrating
these processes into the new systems will be explored.

Assessments Considerations for Confidence and Quality of Federal
Information in an Electronic Age. Robin Peek, Graduate School
of Library and Information Science, Simmons College (rpeek@simmons.edu).

Possible Effects of Information Technology on the Peer Review Process:
JASIS as a Case History. Donald H. Kraft, Department of
Computer Science, Louisiana State University (Kraft@bit.csc.lsu.edu).

Scholarly journals have traditionally required
submission of hard copies of manuscripts that are then sent out to
referees for peer review. Referees then return reviewing forms
indicating measures of the manuscript's quality, needed
revisions, and recommendations to the editor as to the acceptance
or rejection of the paper. Details of this procedure for one
such journal, the Journal of the Association for Information
Science (JASIS) are provided. However, in
today's world, manuscripts are generated via computer and
are readily available in machine-readable formats that can
be accessed via a wide variety of computer mechanisms
(e.g., World Wide Web, electronic mail, ftp, electronic
journals, electronic bulletin boards). Some journals do, or are
considering doing, electronic submittal, electronic reviewing,
and/or electronic publishing. In addition to convenience, a
key element of this electronic processing is time. A mention of
the possible impact of this on JASIS is anticipated.
One issue is how the quality of the papers might be influenced by
information technology advances, another is how the quality of the
reviewing process itself might be. What pressures, including
time and quality, come into play? In an era when time is
quite precious, one can only speculate on the ever increasing
importance of speeding up the process. Authors need to get their
articles in print fast enough to keep up with the
competition and with the ever increasing advant of information technology.
Readers, too, want to be able to find articles that are state of the
art at the time that the articles are state of the art. One could
even question the need for peer review in the electronic age, as
well as how to best to accomplish such review while trying to
expedite publication of quality papers in a timely manner
(print being in increasing competition with electronic media).
One can certainly use the advances in information technology
to speed up the peer review process and the dissemination process, too.
However, one should not try to speed up the peer review itself, which
requires a human to read, ingest, and judge a given work. Thus, while
the communication mechanisms can be quicker, the mechanisms
requiring human judgment are problematic. One wonders, and perhaps
worries, that computers might be perceived as becoming replacements
for the judgment of the peer review; to date, even with
IBM's Big Blue besting Kasparov in the chess match, is even more
problematic. Thus, a discussion of these time pressures and timely
issues on JASIS will ensue.